Category Archives: official site

Ah yes, 2001. That was a very good year if you were a Duran Duran fan. At that point, I wasn’t very active on the internet – I’d check in to dd.com once in a while and read the message boards, but admittedly I wasn’t on the boards when the first teensy whispers of a possible fab five reunion started leaking about. I couldn’t say whether or not the rumors were being discussed on the boards or kept totally under wraps. I only remember the evening I happened to check into dd.com only to find that a new splash page had been put up with five faces on it…and I wasn’t entirely sure who a couple of the faces belonged to! My brain was saying one thing “Can’t be”, and my heart was saying another “PLEASE! You KNOW who these people are!!”

Every once in a while I’ll see a tidbit for a date in history that Amanda unearthed from one place or another and I’ll be surprised. I’m either surprised that she stumbled across that little bit of trivia, or surprised that such a thing happened. This is one of those tidbits…for both reasons. On this date in 2001, rumors of rehearsals for a tour with the original five hit the internet at allstarnews.com. I’m just guessing here, but I’m pretty sure those rumors must have set dd.com alight for the first time in at least a few years, no? Anybody out there???

Have you checked out http://www.duranduran.com, lately? Believe it or not, but, I have. While I know that many people, including myself, have criticized Duran’s official website for a variety of reasons, including that it doesn’t post or provide all the news, that it isn’t the most user friendly, and more, I still think it has some gems for fans on there. Some of these gems might be well-known by fans but others might not be. Some gems might have been known but not thought about for awhile. Thus, I thought it might be good to highlight some parts of the band’s official website that are actually very cool!

If you haven’t been to the official website in awhile and I understand why you wouldn’t (most news is now shared on Facebook and Twitter first), you might notice that the splash page no longer shows pictures from A Diamond in the Mind. Instead, there is a group shot that was featured on the VIP posters in 2011. While I like the picture, I still wish for a group shot featuring one Mr. Dom Brown. From this page, you can go to the regular official site, DuranDuranMusic, Duran’s Facebook, Duran’s Twitter, Duran’s YouTube and Duran’s Google+. Once you enter the official site, it looks the same as it has with the latest news on the bottom, a picture at the top, and a bar of other links to click, including press, store, on tour, music, links, etc. While those all look familiar, what is really worth one’s time to look at?

Music:The music link includes the discography, places to buy, official versions list and jukebox. While I may never use the places to buy links since I own all official releases, I understand why it is there. Likewise, I don’t use the jukebox a lot, but I have, at times, at work when I have no other means of tunes available to me. The discography, though, gets used by me a lot. Rhonda and I joke that we probably represent quite a few hits on the site since we are frequently looking at parts like the discography. I often use it to make sure that I get lyrics correct, since they are available there. It also is a good resource to see what was released and when. Yet, the real gem here is the official versions list. This is a complete list of what songs and REMIXES have been officially released. This is a huge deal for any collector. If you have been around the Duran universe much, you can see that there are a ton of remixes out there. Yet, so many of them are fan made. While many of those completely rock, it is nice to know what are the official ones. This is a list that I will be using to ask daily questions about remixes, which will be coming eventually. I recommend that this is a great place to see how complete one’s collection is.

Writing:I love this section as it has both the past blogs and past postcards. Those features definitely showcase what was going on with the band at that given time and provides a real insight. If you haven’t read all of the blogs and postcards, I definitely recommend taking the time to do so.

Multimedia:This section features exactly what you think it would feature. There is a videos section, which has the videos from All You Need Is Now, Red Carpet Massacre and Astronaut. You can also get to the jukebox from here as well. Yet, the majority of this section has photo albums, including any recent pictures from the studio while the band works on DD14 and, my favorite, Nick’s audience pictures from tours. Have you all found pictures of yourself there?!

JT’s Vault:*sigh* There are moments when I miss John’s Trust the Process website that was maintained during his solo days. Yet, I am so glad that a little bit lives on in this section of the official website. John’s “vaults” contain his scrapbooks from the early days, which are so cool, and his “style”. John’s style, obviously, discusses many of his famous fashion choices over the years. If you want to know about his outfit in the 1987 Strange Behaviour tour, this is where you would go, for instance. Likewise, if you really want to know more about the posters of early Duran, you would want to go to John’s scrapbooks. I, for one, am so thankful that he thought to keep all of that and to put it up for all of us to see.

Timeline:Ah, one of my very favorite sections and one I refer to a lot. This area contains a pretty thorough timeline of the band’s history and biography. Yet, the real gem here is the complete list of concerts. Yes, there is a complete list of every single Duran show. This list contains the date, venue, and city of each and every concert. How cool is that?! It is also visual evidence that Duran has played a ton of shows over their career! If you want to remember what you date you saw them or what the venue was, this is definitely the place to go!

As you can tell, Duran’s official website might not be the news source that some might think it should, it does have some very, very cool features. If you haven’t checked it out lately, I really recommend that you do. I’m so thankful for the elements like JT’s vaults, the complete tour list, the official versions list and more. What are your favorite features?

How do you get your news on what is happening with Duran Duran? It used to be that I would get my news from the most obvious of places: their official website. If I didn’t get my news there, I would get it on message boards where people would copy a news item or would give a link to a news item. Now, I find that I rarely go look at the band’s official website. Instead, I feel like I get all of my news on social networking sites. Am I the only one to notice this? It seems to me that not all of the news is even updated on the official website. I’ll give you an example. This week, the band announced a new live DVD that will be coming out in early summer 2012. Where was this information first posted? It was posted on their facebook. Now, it is posted on their official website. Yet, other news hasn’t. For example, yesterday their facebook’s status talked about the show in Carcassonne, France. Apparently, the date for the concert there has been changed from July 27th to July 23rd. They stated that the tickets for the 27th would be good on the 23rd. Are these announcements on facebook or twitter good enough to provide information? Then, what about unofficial information given by…say…John Taylor on twitter? Do his tweets fill any hole of information or are the fans still lacking information?

When the upcoming DVD title was released this week, my initial reaction was confusion. It took me awhile to even remember anything about a new DVD. Luckily, some of my friends had better memories so they could remind me of the details. They reminded of when and where it was filmed and when they planned to release it. Now, why is it that I didn’t remember these details? It truly could be that I have been a busy, busy person who can’t remember anything unless I write it down. Another possibility is that the information was given in a quick little status update that I just skimmed over. It didn’t seem like much in the midst of everything else I see on facebook on a daily basis. Is there a way that they could make it more noticeable? I don’t know but clearly it didn’t catch my attention. I also wonder if there is enough information given. What format will it be released? Just DVD? Blu-ray? Where and how will it be available? Can we preorder it? Now, I suppose this extra information isn’t that big of a deal since it is for an upcoming product but what about that announcement regarding the show in France. How come they had to change it? There was no explanation given. Did people with tickets to that show get informed? Goodness, if they weren’t paying attention on facebook, would they have even known? This information isn’t listed on dd.com as of this blog. What if people aren’t on social networking sites? How will they get seriously important information like this? A date change is a pretty significant thing, after all.

Of course, not all information shared on facebook or twitter is as essential as finding out that your concert date has been switched. Some of the information is really just fun or just works to increase people’s interest or excitement. For me, most of this “information” is given by John Taylor in his subtle or not-so-subtle tweets. This week, I have to admit that I took notice of a few of his tweets, including that European dates are about to be announced and that US dates are being confirmed. Interestingly enough, both John and the official band facebook mentioned his book this week. John said that his book would be released after the US tour. The band’s facebook mentioned that he would be doing some activities as part of the book launch. Being the kind of person I am, I did look to see if I could have any hints as to when this much anticipated book might come out by checking out Amazon in both the US and the UK. According to Amazon US, the book is titled “Love, Death and Duran Duran” and is due out September 25th. Amazon UK has the title as “The Million Little Seductions: A Life in Duran Duran” and is due to be released on September 20th. Hmm…this information leads me to wonder what John will cover in the book and leads me to try and fill in the blanks about upcoming tour plans. I enjoy this kind of information!

What is different for me between the DVD and France announcements and John’s tweets about plans for this year? What is the same? The news on the DVD and France are official. In my opinion, those need to be posted in such a way that everyone can get all the facts. Thus, social networking sites are not enough as not all people are on facebook and twitter. The news should also be detailed as the majority of questions should be answered in that entry. On the other hand, unofficial news or little hints of what might be coming does not need to be mentioned on the official website or in a way that grabs attention, in my opinion. The people who like those hints also like to find them and like to try to figure out exactly what they might mean. I do, at least. What do you think? Is Duran Duran means of sharing news good enough for you? Does it work well?

There are many complaints in Duranland and one of the most commonly heard one has to do with the band’s official website. It seems that dd.com is almost always the last place where Duran Duran news gets posted. This news could be something as simple as the band’s collaboration with Dior or something as big as information about album releases and tour dates. Goodness, before the UK tour was announced on dd.com, I saw many of the dates listed on a fan run message board. I have yet to see an official announcement about when the actual physical release of All You Need is Now is, but have read articles that state it is coming out on March 21/22. Many online stores have the album for pre-order, which includes a track listing of 14 songs. Is the final track listing? I have no idea because there hasn’t been an official announcement that I have seen. While lack of official announcements about albums are annoying, they are not nearly as frustrating as the lack of information regarding tours.

I suspect that many fans in the US will increase their demand about US tour dates now that the Fan Jam is over. The writing is on the wall. If the band is playing in the States between now and the UK tour, tour dates better be released soon. I have seen as little as 6 weeks in between the official press release and a show and as much as 3 months for the same. Duran should be announcing then anytime between now and the middle of March, unless they plan to come to the US later. As I type this, I can hear Duranies mumbling under their breath about the lack of advance notice. I would probably join in on that mumbling. Why must they wait until the last minute to announce a show(s)/tour? It seems like they officially announce only when they have to and by have to, I mean that the sale to the general public is happening within a few days. Look at the UK tour. They announced early on a Tuesday and the fan presale happened early the NEXT DAY as regular sales happened on the following Friday. Is that any way to show consideration to fans? I don’t think so.

Part of my problem with the lack of advance notice is that I don’t understand it. Why wait to announce? What purpose does it serve? Does the person/people making this decision think it will help ticket sales? Does it help to increase the fandom? Does it make new fans? Does it help to keep fans? Somehow, I doubt it. I think it works to frustrate us as fans. Worst yet, I think it makes the Duran Duran team look ill prepared. How is that good for anyone? Maybe I’m missing a key here. Yes, I realize that they don’t want to announce anything before it is ready but you can’t tell me that they only know a day or two before a tour is announced?! It doesn’t make sense to me and it doesn’t make sense to most of the other fans I know and come into contact with.

So, if I could offer advice to Duran’s people, have dd.com be the definitive source for news. Fans should not find out new and cool things that the band is doing from message boards or social networking sites. News should come from the official website. Also, news regarding tours should be given out as soon as everything is locked in. The outside world would perceive Duran Duran and their team as organized and prompt. Duranies will be happy to have the time to truly evaluate the dates and see what, if anything, works for them. I suspect that the longer people have with tour dates, the more likely they are to work something out and be able to do more, which would help everyone.

-A

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